Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, based on the book by Douglas Adams, has been a big hit for BBC America — as has Doctor Who. To celebrate the Dirk Gently season finale, the cable network is dusting off Adams’ best-known contribution to Doctor Who.
For a limited time, “City of Death” will be available to stream online and view via on-demand cable for BBC America subscribers. The 1979 serial is renowned for being the series’ first on-location shoot outside the United Kingdom, as Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor and his Time Lady companion Romana, played by soon-to-be-future-but-not-for-long wife Lalla Ward, traipse about Paris to thwart the schemes of an alien villain whose consciousness became scattered throughout Earth’s timeline due to a tragic accident that wiped out the last of his kind. It’s also known for celebrity cameos, including one by Monty Python’s John Cleese, and for the infamous “multiple Mona Lisas” plot (they’re not counterfeits if they’re all by Leonardo da Vinci!).
The making of “City of Death” is an epic story in itself, about which you can read more here.
“City of Death” is widely seen as essential viewing for newcomers to Doctor Who, and if you’ve never seen it, give yourself the gift of the experience now. But don’t limit yourself to TV: Long missing one of Doctor Who’s famous paperback novelizations, “City of Death” was recently released as a special edition book (which you can order here) by James Goss, who’s no stranger to adapting Adams’ work: he brought Dirk Gently to the stage.
